Tulkinghorn (The Lawyer, 11 March 1997) implies that those attending the recent conference at the Richmond Hill Hotel were the wealthy owners of upmarket cars. As, regrettably, the owner of the BMW in question, I should point out that the poor old thing has its 10th birthday in April, 124,500 miles on its clock, a […]
Robert Webb QC was born in Kent on 4 October 1948. He is now head of chambers at 5 Bell Yard. What was your first job? Working on a milk round on a cart drawn by a horse called Dolly. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £872 in year one (1972). What […]
Law Society Services Ltd (LSS), an arm’s-length Law Society company responsible for developing the society’s commercial services, is to be disbanded, just two years after it was set up. The U-turn follows concerns that the company, which was responsible for running the Law Society’s Gazette and the society’s new business centre, was too independent from […]
A time limit on oral arguments, major limits on the automatic right to appeal and fixed recoverable costs are among reforms being considered for the civil division of the Court of Appeal. The proposals, published last week in a consultation paper, were prepared by the review body charged with finding ways of improving efficiency in […]
I read with interest the letter from David McIntosh in your issue of 25 February. There is a world of difference between accepting certain basic principles on the one hand and, on the other, apparently deliberately making attempts, in a public forum, to lay stress on practices, whether they are common or not, which are […]
Since when have lawyers based their advice on perception rather than evidence? Even the most junior articled clerk would not be expected to work on the basis of public perception, so why should such senior solicitors as the chair of the Courts and Legal Services Committee and the chair of the Criminal Law Committee base […]
I wondered if any of your London-based readers could help with a documentary LWT is producing about traffic congestion in the capital. We are trying to identify the worst stretches of road in London for commuters and are looking for people to record their journey times for a week. If you can help or have […]
How will a change of government affect the legal profession? If the results of a survey gauging the impact of a Labour Party victory on the property industry is anything to go by, lawyers will almost certainly be among the major beneficiaries as the industry comes to terms with a spate of new legislation. The […]
The growth of the independent pro bono group run by law firms continues apace. Now the group is preparing to hire a full-time director to get the venture off the ground. It is excellent to see solicitors taking such matters into their own hands independently from the Law Society, which has been unable to get […]
THE NEW European Court of Justice ruling on Tupe could make local authority in-house departments more competitive against tendering bids from private firms, according to a leading employment lawyer. Dr John McMullen, who heads Pinsent Curtis’s employment practice, said the ruling that workers’ rights are not automatically protected under a changeover of service contracts would […]
Advising on the issue and trade of debt such as medium term notes and bonds is an increasingly lucrative part of the business of UK law firms Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Linklaters & Paines. In the US the different parties to these deals always each instruct their own law firm. But in Europe, […]
UK lawyers face the increasing danger of becoming entangled in anti-money laundering suits as US regulators pursue aggressive new tactics, according to former Fraud Squad detective Rowan Bosworth-Davies. Bosworth-Davies, who now specialises in financial crime at Titmuss Sainer Dechert, said he had evidence that US prosecutors had used undercover investigators to track down money launderers […]